robbyville

Hey all,

Been quite a while since I last posted. Sadly work has gotten more cumbersome and less flexible than usual during the summer months and that has cut into my training enormously. Still riding as much as possible but rides have been greatly limited in duration and intensity.

I have my first TT this Saturday, Eddy Merckx class. Route is around 1300 ft of climbing (doesn't seem like anything long or steep beyond 6% for a short section and a false flat of 2-3%), just under 40km long.

Viewing Shenandoah Time Trial - Full Course | MapMyRide

I'd say my FTP has regressed to somewhere around 200 or just south of that. Looking for any advice on how to ride, do I just go all out, pace myself (and if so how much), etc. Any experience you have to offer would be greatly appreciated!

Ygduf

start here: https://www.bikeforums.net/33-road-bi...l#post16949974

*edit: that links to a specific post of this same question which was posed last week. there are strategy comments immediately following it. not being snarky.

MDcatV

i'm not doing it, but heres the skinny from trusted info sources:

hilly for a TT in mid atlantic area. pace yourself by hitting the hills hard (above ftp), continuing over the top of all of them so you dont have lags in your speed, and keeping pressure on the chain for all the downhills (pedal over the top to build up your speed for downhill sections as efficiently as possible then dip down under ftp to recover on them as much as you can - but keep power on the chain).

keep your eyes open and head up, there's some quasi technical sections. roads are a little "country" so i'd recommend staying in the drops and smooth vs. trying invisible aero bars (IAB) position.

plan for it to take you 75 minutes +/-.

Ygduf

75 min!

robbyville

Whoops yeah shoulda done that thanks!

echappist

Strava Segment | Shenandoah TT 2012

the 2nd best time on strava is set by MDCatV's teammate, who's an excellent time trialist. ~26mph

the local TT ace, who's a bit faster than the KOM, though not by much, hasn't done this before, but i'd be surprised if he would average over 27mph.

they cut the course short by 1 mile relative to the strava route, and another 2 miles relative to the proposed route, so the OP may be looking at ~65-70 minutes for 21 hilly miles

if i were the OP i'd start out easy and build from there. There should be a tailwind on the main drag outbound. The hills should be mostly orthogonal to the wind direction.

Ygduf

yeah. ~1hr is more the range I was expecting. 26mph for that is snappy for sure.

robbyville

Thanks guys! Thankfully almost all my rides are in an incredibly similar area about 25 miles away. Even my short 15 mile loop has around 1700 feet of short vibrant climbing. While I doubt I'll be able to hold much more than a 22 mph average I guess we'll see what the conditions and my legs are like.

kensuf

Isn't that always the way it is in a TT anyway?

robbyville

True enough!

Some good advice on that thread, silly of me to not have gone through it before. Regarding the maintaining power through the top of a climb and into the downhill. I'm pretty guilty of letting up most of the time, I don't enjoy pain as much as some of you not to mention discipline. But since my training has been cut short this summer (I was doing well in the Spring), I've tried to make the best use of my rides and have been pushing through most climbs as advised.

We'll see how I fare!

Ygduf

I try to change my outlook. I think about the top of the hill at the top, I think about the break I can take after getting up to speed after the apex of the hill. I try to mentally push the "top" of the hill out 15 seconds. Perspective.

MDcatV

according to the strava thing echap posted, my team mate is also the leader on the Women's leaderboard :-), although i suspect the best woman TTer, also on my team, isnt on Strava, nor is her husband ... he's too busy beating up on mattm in road races. ha. ha.

Ygduf

please, mattm in a road race?

MDcatV

whatever the cccx <?> race was. i chuckled when i saw his mug on my facebook newsfeed, then read his race report about an old dude no one knew rode away from them and held it to the finish :-). small world stuff.

mattm

@MDcatV now that your olden buddy is marked it wont be so easy next time!! =]

mattm

I've done some dammit! hell i even won one as a cat 3.

robbyville

That really is a good way to think of it. I'll certainly be giving it a whirl on Saturday! Just saw that my cat goes after 10 am so probably going to be fairly warm but it does get me out of a meeting... Then back to work afterwards oh well